required if Europe was to be spared the horrors of another war. He said that the German
Republic could not survive without generous help from France. He said that the "Cabinet of
the Barons" was a natural answer to the cabinet of the bigot, Poincare, and to that of the cheat,
Laval. Blum was standing for real disarmament of all the nations, including France, and he had
been willing to split his party rather than to yield on that issue. Said Irma, after the luncheon:
"We won't ever invite him and the de Bruynes at the same time!"
XI
From the time her decision was taken to rent the palace, Irma's mind was occupied with the
problem of a party which
building of that size, made of white marble, would require a lot of cordiality to affect its
temperature. His wife wanted to think of something original. Parties were so much alike. People
ate your food and drank your wine, often too much of it; they danced, or listened to a singer
they had heard many times at the opera and been bored by. Lanny quoted an old saying:
"Gabble, gobble, git."
Irma insisted that
Couldn't they think of something? The husband tried various suggestions: a performing
elephant from the circus, a troop of Arabian acrobats he had seen in a cabaret—their black hair
was two feet long and when they did several somersaults in one leap they brought down the
house. "Don't be silly, dear," said the wife.
He thought of an idea to end all ideas. "Offer a prize of a hundred thousand francs for the
most original suggestion for a party. That will start them talking as nothing ever did." He
meant it for burlesque, but to his amusement Irma was interested; she talked about it,
speculating as to what sort of suggestions she would get, and so on; she wasn't satisfied until she
had asked Emily, and been assured that it might be a good idea for Chicago, but not for Paris.
Even after Irma dropped it, she had a hankering, and said: "I believe my father would have
done it. He didn't let people frighten him away from things."
It would have to be a conventional soiree. The young Robins would come and play—a
distinguished thing to furnish the talent from your own family, and have it the best.
Fortunately the Paris newspapers did not report Communist doings—unless it was a riot or
something—therefore few persons knew that Hansi had assisted in electing Zhess Block-less to
the Chamber of Deputies. (Already that body had met, and the new member, refusing to be
intimidated by the splendid surroundings, had put on his old phonograph record, this time
with a loud-speaker attachment, so that his threats against the
as far as Tunisia and Tahiti, French Indo-China and Guiana.)
Lanny was fascinated to observe his young wife functioning in the role which she had chosen
for herself. She was not yet twenty-four, but she was a queen, and had found out how queens
conduct themselves. No worry, no strain, no sense of uncertainty. Being an American, she could
without sacrifice of dignity ask the chef or the butler how things were done in France; then
she would say whether or not they were going to be done that way in her home. She spoke with
quiet decision, and the servants learned quickly to respect her; even the new
When the great day arrived, she didn't get excited, like many hostesses, and wear herself out
so that she couldn't enjoy her own triumph; no chain smoking of cigarettes, no coffee or
nips of brandy to keep her going. Nor did she put responsibilities off on her mother or
mother-in-law; that would be a bad precedent. She said: "This is my home, and I want to learn
to run it." She had thought everything out, and had lists prepared; she summoned the
servitors before her and checked off what had been done and gave them their final
instructions. She had learned to judge them in two or three weeks. Jerry was a "brick," and
anything he undertook was just as good as done. Ambroise, the butler, was conscientious, but
had to be flattered; Simone, the housekeeper, was fidgety and lacking in authority; Feathers
had always been a fool and would get rattled in any emergency. Having checked everything,
Irma took a long nap in the afternoon.
At about nine in the evening the shiny limousines began rolling up before the palace, and a
stream of immaculate guests ascended the white marble stairs, covered with a wide strip of red
velvet carpet. It was the cream of that international society which made its headquarters in
the world's center of fashion. Many of them had met Irma in New York or on the Riviera, in
Berlin, London, Vienna, or Rome. Others were strangers, invited because of their position; they
came because of curiosity as to a much-talked-about heiress. They would see what sort of show
